Grand Slam (1982)

I’m a silver pads Grand Slam guy. That’s not to say I don’t dig his original red padded self. After all, he’s the man who helmed the HAL, the 80s team’s first big artillery piece. I like to think he’s just super versatile. He graduated top of Special Weapons School class, so I can see his being able to transition from a laser cannon to a rocket pack with ease. I also connected to the character thanks to the tiny bit of psych profile that revealed he was soft spoken and into sci-fi/comics.

There was a time when I cast my 1982 figures into the background, preferring instead the more streamlined ’83 versions. I’ve since come around to the first year Joes, primarily from an appreciation of what they represent within the history of the series as a whole. I hesitate to call it a “warts and all” situation, since the figures aren’t of a poor quality. They’re simply less refined than both the later Hasbro output as well as the earlier Mego figures upon which they were prototyped. Those first Joes deserve a special spot in a collection.

3 comments

I never disliked Grand Slam, but I never really used him enough to need another figure than his ’82 that came with the HAL. The “comic fan” saved him from obscurity for me, and I’ve got him in the tech pool with Breaker, Mainframe and those guys.

The problem with artillery character is they don’t lend themselves to use in a commando operations comic book. And even the grand battles of the cartoons, old Grand Slam never got used. Thunder and Short Fuze didn’t see too much action, either.